Loop are a British Space Rock band formed in 1987.
They were initially formed by Robert Hampson on guitar and his then-girlfriend Becky Stewart on drums. Stewart was soon replaced by John Wills of The Servants and Glen Ray, with second guitarist James Endeacott. They intially signed over to Head Records, they released a few singles before releasing their debut, Heaven's End. Heaven's End still remains well regarded to this day, with it's influence on Shoegazing being the main reason. It already displayed their Signature Style: Loud, droning guitars with a lot of wah-pedals in the mix, with repetitive structures drawing from Can and The Stooges, and with Hampson's voice being as low in the mix as possible. It's differentiated by their other two albums, however by a lower sound quality, and occasionally gets flack for being too similar to bands like Spacemen 3 (including members of Spacemen 3).
Their next album, Fade Out, was an Even Better Sequel, with a more polished sound having more in common with Hawkwind and The Jesus and Mary Chain than Spacemen 3, with the space rock influences still intact. It was a notable success, reaching #1 on the UK Indie Charts. Their third and final album, A Gilded Eternity, turned down the distortion (though not completely) and had a further influence from Shoegazing and featuring their signature song, "Vapour", as well as the epic jam "Be Here Now" (no, not the Oasis song). It once again hit #1 on the Indie Charts and even scraped the Top 40 in the UK.
They broke up soon after A Gilded Eternity. Hampson briefly spent some time in Godflesh and performed on their second album, before forming Main, which started off as similar to Loop before becoming an Ambient / Drone project. Loop has since reformed in 2013, playing live shows and releasing an EP, Array 1.
Discography
- Heaven's End (1987)
- Fade Out (1989)
- A Gilded Eternity (1990)
- Array 1 (EP, 2015)
Tropes
- Cover Version: Strangely, Like Rats. Makes more sense when you realize it was for a split with Godflesh called "Loopflesh", where Godflesh also did a cover of "Straight to your Heart", and Hampson also joined Godflesh for a bit.
- Drone of Dread: Mainly in Main. Loop also had drones, but they weren't really, "dreadful", persay.
- Epic Rocking: A handful of their songs top 6 minutes, while "Be Here Now" is over 9.
- Perishing Alt-Rock Voice: An interesting example. While Robert Hampson's voice sound more commanding than other versions, it's often mixed so low in the mix that it feels like this anyway. "Vapour" is a more straightforward example, however.
